narraboth wrote:well, if it's what happened on him, then it is.Some Bonpos are against guru rinpoche and ofcourse that's not good.

From their point of view, there were two Padmasambhavas; a nice one and one, a an evil Nepalese sorcerer, that persecuted Bonpos. They just think Nyingmas are confused about history.

Interesting I thought that this was actually a gelug story of Padmasamabhava which was made up by a certain "scholar" who criticized both terma and kama traditions. So it seems that he was not so original after all, he just borrowed from bonpos.

narraboth wrote:well, if it's what happened on him, then it is.Some Bonpos are against guru rinpoche and ofcourse that's not good.

From their point of view, there were two Padmasambhavas; a nice one and one, a an evil Nepalese sorcerer, that persecuted Bonpos. They just think Nyingmas are confused about history.

Interesting I thought that this was actually a gelug story of Padmasamabhava which was made up by a certain "scholar" who criticized both terma and kama traditions. So it seems that he was not so original after all, he just borrowed from bonpos.

Brings up a couple thoughts for me. . . 1, from our limited perceptions in samsara, we really have no way to discriminate "good" vs. "bad" karma - according to this article, this man became blind as a result of wrong views against dharma - on the other hand, his blind condition directly provided him with the conditions to practice one-pointedly, without distraction for so many years, which led to his realization. So it's hard to say that the blindness was a result of bad karma.

Secondly, this story really drives home the point about focusing on one practice wholeheartedly for a lifetime. I wonder how results might differ, for example, if instead of doing ngondro, one were to accumulate several million Vajra Guru mantras?

In 1371, Dorje Lingpa, one of the five Kingly Tertons prophesied by Guru Rinpoche, and also known as Yungdrung Lingpa, discovered a controversial copper-box in the rDzu-'phrul cave in Paro Tagtsang - Bhutan, from which he extracted manuscripts of the rDzogs chen gser gyi thur ma - also known as the 'Golden Stick' or the 'Golden Needle'- rDzogs chen gser thur. This complete cycle was allegedly been concealed by Vairocana, and consists of twenty-four chapters.

In his own account, Dorje Lingpa reluctant to extract this Bon terma, was nevertheless encouraged by Padmashambhava in a vision to do so, as he instructed him that the nature of mind belongs neither to Bon or anyone. He also tells him that the crucial teaching of Bon and Buddhism are inseparable or "bon chos dbyer med", and instructs him that: “if you do not remove the cataract of ignorance from the lens of the eye, what is the use of the Golden Needle?".

And even if mutual celebration for both traditions can be further testified by one of Dorje Lingpa's songs, "ban bon gnis med du rtogs pa'i 'gur" or "The mystical song of the realisation of the inseparability of the Bon religion and Buddhism", unfortunately even these days sectarianism, doubt and suspicion continue to remain rampant amongst followers of these traditions - East and West!

It is no wonder that for political reasons, in my opinion, this terma discovered by Dorje Lingpa continues to be sidelined and disowned both by the contemporary Bon and the Nyingma traditions, and perhaps may even need to be revisited in order to flatten misguided views!

This is A wonderfully inspiring story it just goes to show that one practise with faith is all you need !

Abandoning Dharma is, in the final analysis, disparaging the Hinayana because of the Mahayana; favoring the Hinayana on account of the Mahayana; playing off sutra against tantra; playing off the four classes of the tantras against each other; favoring one of the Tibetan schools—the Sakya, Gelug, Kagyu, or Nyingma—and disparaging the rest; and so on. In other words, we abandon Dharma any time we favor our own tenets and disparage the rest.